Nectar Ales Black Xantus

Aroma: 10 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

Had as Humboldt Black Xantus. Pours opaque dark-chocolate brown with a thin but serviceable tan head. A bit of ruby-brown light peeps through at the bottom. Aroma almost defies description. Lessee - chocolate, roast coffee, smoky malt, hints of wine and molasses. Flavor has bold strokes of wine-soaked wood, smoky malt, chocolate, bitter woody hops, and molasses; sweetness nicely balances bitterness. This is one substantial beer, not for delicate palates! Texture is firm and viscous, if none too fizzy; it leaves a smoky mocha finish. The heck with traditional desserts - make this your dessert. (You may need to call a cab, though!)

Aroma: 10 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 10 | Flavor: 10 | Overall: 10

Pours out 100% black that a light can't penetrate. The aroma is oak, smoke, fresh cut wood and roasted malt. The mouthfeel is sludge just the way I like it. The taste is off the charts complex.

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

First introduction from this brewer and Nectar Ales. Loaded with all kinds of flavors...a complex IPS. Not one of those over-the-top bourbon aged beers...as this is more on the subtle side. Still heavy and definitely made for sharing. Alcohol hidden somewhat, but you feel it for sure! A high rating...although I'd say it blends in with a lot of the others out there in this style.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 7

Pours black with thick, tan head. Aroma boasts bitter chocolate notes, vanilla, wood, alcohol. I enjoyed the flavor, but almost wish I would have cellared it longer. Seemed a little harsh with the alcohol. Full bodied, gentle carbonation, notable warming. Good beer, would like another bottle to hold onto for a while.

Aroma: 10 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 9

When first poured it was a struggle to produce a head, but with rhytmic glugs into a flat glass, about two and a half fingers was produced. It stuck around a while, no lacing though. Black and black can be. Head is a beautiful tan with a red note, really nice. Smell is really dark chocolate, touch of yeast, alcohol, cigar smoke, dry earth/peat. Taste seems to have a bit of a spicy bourbon/wood kick. Alcohol is prevalent, especially as it warms. A good job is made of staying away from a syrup/mollasses texture, and it works well for a while, but by the end of a 22oz its still pretty strong. Makes me salivate alot and the back edges of my tounge seem to have puffed up, indicating an underlying bitterness that is harder than I thought to detect. A nice beer, really rich, would be good with oysters, that said it seems to have a few oyster stout qualities. Last thing leaving is really really strong vanilla in the mouth, undetectable in the nose, its more of an impression and destruction of the taste buds than anything else. Im not sure how I feel about this really, I may come back and change my numbers tomorrow.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

Nutty, roasted stout with a good blend of toffee and toast. Creamy and filling with a slow smoothness. Solid all around, no complaints here............//////// Sampled from an aged 2011 bottle in February of 2013. Lots of oat bran, fudge, coffee and dark fruits created for a very nice beer. Scores better than my original review from a 3.9 to a 4.1 so i will split the difference.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

sampled on 11/20/09. 22oz bottle with mitch. pours a pitch black color. medium/thin head. aroma is roasted malts, chocolate, coffee, oak. taste is roasty, chocolate, coffee, light oak, vanilla, a hint of dark fruit. no alcohol hotness or burn. body is full. mouthfeel is smooth. aftertaste is slightly bitter. woo! a nice sipping beer.

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

well, i have had some nice surprises from Firestone lately so i shouldn't have been surprised by this one, but even though i'd heard some hype...i was still surprised. poured jet black with a dark chocolate head. i was aggressive w the pour, so it was thick as well. smell was cocoa, coffee, bourbon, tobacco, licorice. nice mix. feel was riiiiiidiculous. smooth as snot on a glass eye, with no hint of heat for an 11% beer. wow. flavor great as well. lots of coffee and chocolate, but so much more. the barreling (bourbon and wine) was evident, but not overdone. a great rich balanced beer, dangerously easy to drink too. my favorite FW beer after the amazing 13th anniversary. For $15 it may be a while for another, but it was worth the price for this one.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 7

Tap at City Beer Store (also previously at Bistro BA Fest). Good to very good imperial stout with a lot of flavor but a bit too sweet. The beer pours black with a thin mocha head. The aroma is a pleasant jumble of licorice, bourbon, coffee, chocolate and roast. The taste is similar but the sweetness of the malt and bourbon overshadows some of the underlying complexity, a fairly common problem with these big barrel-aged stouts. However, Black Xantus has a lot of excellent flavor and the sweetness is a minor annoyance rather than a fatal flaw. The feel is a hair too thin, in my opinion, but the beer manages to keep from being cloying or syrupy with a decent bite in the finish. Despite some minor issues, it’s an excellent beer and wouldn’t be entirely out of place in a lineup of the vaunted heights of the style.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

Picked up a bottle for a Christmas Day tasting, and it was quite damned good. The body is black with dark brown edges and a smallish 1/2" tan head. Coffee, chooclate, vanilla ice cream, bourbon and smoked almonds can be found in the aroma. Flavor has some intensity with the usual compliments of chocolate and coffee to be found. But some flavors crash the 2-flavor tango of the C&C, which primarily was dark fruits, wood, molasses and tobacco. A really, really nice impy, but the price is a bit off-putting at $15 a bottle. If it weren’t for a special day, I would not have splurged.